Free To Love
by UniCornFTW
Summary: I am bad at summaries, so just gonna say that it takes place in epsiode 20 and that Dante didn't forgot to lock his front door :) this story is uploaded in archive of our own, but one person known as Lillium-heart reccomended to post it here. so good reading :)


'Toughtspectre.' Zhalia whispered as the explosion destroyed the only home she'd ever had.

She appeared on the roof top of a neighbour's house. It was raining. She knelt down as her scratches started to bleed. A big whoosh of wind made her shiver. The woman knew that she needed to get to a safe place before the suits would find her. She once again looked at her apartment from which black clouds were coming. Tongues of fire had conquered the apartment. Her past was burning. The past that saved her from dying on the streets. How could she? How could she betray him? The man that was like a father to her. That showed her power. Although, deep inside, she knew this day would come. She looked at her past one more time and, using the same magic, disappeared. But her past will haunt her forever. She appeared in front of Dante Vale's house. She sighed. She walked upstairs and knocked weakly.

The woman bit her lip. 'What will I say to him?' She was avoiding them. Trying to avoid, at least. But she knew that she couldn't avoid them for much longer. They believed in her. Trusted her. With these thoughts of her friends coming into her head, someone opened the door.

'Zhalia!' a surprised voice came from the door. Zhalia smiled to him weakly. Dante let her in.

'The kids aren't here?' she asked curiously.

Dante shook his head and looked at her with concern. Zhalia sat on the couch and closed her eyes. She didn't want to show that she was in pain. Dante went to kitchen and brought a first aid kit. He sat beside her and started to clean her wounds. She felt uncomfortable feeling his touches on her skin. Zhalia took the medicine wool from him and started to clean the wounds herself. 'Lone wolf. Licking her own wounds.' Dante acted as if nothing happened and walked towards the kitchen to make some warm tea. He put the kettle on and once again sat beside Zhalia. The woman was done with cleaning her wounds. Only now she realized how tired and cold she was. Dante noticed her shivering and stood up.

'While tea is still in process, you can go to the room and change into warm, dry clothes.' he said.

Zhalia didn't say a word and stood up. She climbed up the stairs and she didn't feel how she walked into Dante's room. The woman opened his wardrobe and took out a warm sweater with buttons. She took off her t-shirt and jeans and threw them on the bed. Then she put on the sweater and buttoned it up. It was too big for her: one of the shoulders was falling down, and its length was 9 centimetres above her knees. So she didn't need to worry about pants. Also the sleeves were too long for her arms, but it gave a strange comfort. Though as big as it was, it was still very warm. She sighed and headed towards stairs to climb down to the living room. She climbed down with her bare feet and leaned on the doorway as she was used to do. Dante came from the kitchen with two hot cups of tea and smiled at her. He gestured her to sit down. Zhalia sat on the couch gathering her feet under her butt. She took a cup in her hand and inhaled the smell of the tea. 'It's probably peach.' she guessed.

'So are you alright, Zhalia? What happened?' Dante asked putting his cup on the table.

'Yeah, I am fine, don't worry. I-I just did what I had to do a long time ago.' she stuttered a little. She wasn't used to being asked "how are you?".

'It doesn't look like you are fine. Zhalia, I don't want anything bad to happen to you. So tell me the truth. How are you?' he asked calmly, trying not to push her too much.

'Just why? Why do you care? I betrayed you. Your team. I almost killed Lok and Sophie. And you still let me inside your house, you let me wear your clothes and then you bring me a cup of hot leaf water? You are a weird person, Vale.' Zhalia whispered the last sentence in hope that Dante wouldn't hear it.

And again Zhalia was trying to lock everything from the others. She thought that feelings made her weak. And they did. She couldn't kill Lok and Sophie because they were her friends. She couldn't kill Dante because he was more than a friend to her. Dante just huffed and smiled.

'Why are you smiling? Making fun of me?' Zhalia snapped at him.

'No, why would you think like that? Just it is hard to explain with words, Zhalia.' He stood up and turned around from her. 'Can I show you?' He turned around and extended his arm towards her.

She took his arm when a thought came to her mind: 'What the hell am I doing?'. She stood up with his help. What happened next surprised her. He hugged her. He wrapped his arms arround her and she put hers on his chest. Zhalia let her head rest on Dante's chest. She let out a deep sigh and started to cry. She'd always preferred building up emotions inside herself. Never expressing them. Crying was what weaklings did. But now, his warm embrace was just calling to spill emotions out. Dante stroked her hair. After few minutes of the secure embrace, he lifted her head and with his thumb he cleaned her tears. Zhalia opened her mouth to say something when she was interrupted by Dante's lips on hers. He started slowly as Zhalia didn't answer the kiss right away. She was astonished. Only after a few minutes she kicked herself in the mind and started kissing him back. She wrapped her hands around his neck tangling her fingers in his hair. The woman felt how her beloved man wrapped his arms around her waist and deepened the kiss. That was when suddenly someone tried to open the front door of Dante's house. They quickly pulled apart, Zhalia's cheeks burning. She smiled warmly as Dante walked towards the door. He seemed lost and a bit angry too. As soon as he unlocked the door, Lok fell inside, on the floor. Zhalia was looking in a different direction, so that none of the men would notice her red cheeks.

'Sopfieszlearndhwjzhowjdjsibroll...' Lok started mumbling with his head still on the ground. Dante helped him get up.

'Calm down, Lok.' Dante said as Lok inhaled and exhaled air a few times.

'Okey, I am calm. So, Sophie learned how to repair my dad's journal as she repaired her vase that me and Cherit broke and we're gonna know where my dad is...' he blurted everything out.

He stopped when he noticed Zhalia sitting on couch.

'Hi, Zhal.' he greeted her calmly. His mind drifted away from his main topic too fast. He sat beside her and Dante brought him a cup of hot tea.

'Hey Lok.' she smiled and hid a strand of hair behind her ear.

'Did I interrupt something?' Lok asked, as a big bruise on his cheek, from falling on the floor, was starting to be visible.

'No, don't worry. Call Sophie over here and we will try her new spell.' Dante assured Lok. Lok nodded his head like a child, jumped up and ran towards the kitchen to call Sophie. Dante looked at Zhalia awkwardly and smiled. He was going to say something when Lok rushed back. The boy sat in the same place as before and was smiling happily when he noticed Zhalia's bare legs showing up from Dante's sweater. He wanted to ask something but Zhalia quickly got up and yawned as she noticed Lok's gaze.

'Well, I am tired, guys. And Sophie's magic would make me even more tired. So goodnight.' She didn't wait for their answer as she headed towards the guest bedrooms.

'GOODNIGHT ZHALIA!' she heard Lok screaming from behind.

She stopped in front of Dante's bedroom. 'He wouldn't be angry if I slept in his bed, he freaking kissed me.' she thought. But then her old self came to her mind. 'He just felt sorry for you. Nobody cares about you. You are all alone in this world. You were used to it. But now you are weak. Love makes you weak.' Still, Zhalia opened Dante's bedroom door while trying to ignore the voices in her head. 'You are weak. Nobody loves you. They hate you.' Zhalia fell on the bed and closed her eyes. She curled in to a ball. The woman touched her lips with two fingers and smiled a little. She was happy. She felt happiness. After so many years. Even if love was weakness, then she was happy to be in love. It showed her a happy life. Another side of life, which she'd never expected to see. This so called "weakness" showed her trust, loyalty, hope. Zhalia heard how the door slowly opened and someone sat on the bed side near her. She knew who it was. Dante started stroking her hair. Zhalia curled off the ball position and sat up.

'Will you want diner?' Dante smiled as he hid a strand behind the ear.

Zhalia shook her head. She couldn't speak. Why did she deserve to be loved by such a good man? She was nothing. A street rat. A traitor.

'Why?' she asked with hoarse voice.

'What's "why"?' Dante leaned towards her. He laid his forehead on hers.

'Why do you love me?' She looked desperately at him.

'Zhalia. You are a wonderful person, you are brave, moral, loyal...'

'But...' Zhalia tried to interrupt him.

'Because you care about what you did and it was the right thing to do, no matter how hard it was for you. You are thoughtful and tender. I could go on and on, Zhalia. Although you made mistakes, you are still perfect to me.' He cupped her cheek and leaned in for a kiss.

'Dante...' Zhalia whispered his name.

Their lips connected into a passionate kiss. Dante lied down on top of her as Zhalia wrapped her arms around his neck. Dante broke the kiss just to start planting kisses on her neck. Zhalia let out a little moan and gasped. She tried to push him away. He gave up and looked in her eyes.

'Sorry, Dante, but I said I am tired and it meant that I am tired.' She lied a little. Zhalia was afraid that she wouldn't be able to control herself and she didn't want to rush things up.

'I understand, darling, if I might call you that. I have to go check on the kids, I wouldn't want to see my kitchen burning.' He smiled and kissed her nose tip.

She giggled and quickly covered her mouth. Zhalia looked with shock at him. It was so unusual for her to laugh.

'That sounded like angels were singing, you should laugh more.' He got up from the bed. Zhalia shook her head.

'It's never going to happen again. It sounded like a whale being killed.' Zhalia said.

'Well, I wish I would sound like that while being killed.' He smiled widely and Zhalia granted him with one of her death stares.

'Oh my God, get out of the room, Vale.' She threw a pillow at him.

'Okey, okey, I am going out. No need to kick me out.' He caught the pillow and walked out of the room.

Zhalia fell down on bed and started to laugh. Then the woman looked up to the roof. She knew that from now on her life would change. She finally felt loved. She finally could be herself. She was able to be free.

 **Author's note:**

 **Huge thanks goes to Lilium-Heart, thank you for your time and motivation towards all of my works, it means a lot, to have person who corrects my mistakes and helps to reach for best results is truly miracle. I am so happy to have you :)**


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